As public safety moves closer to a nationwide Next-Generation 9-1-1 system, Geographic Information Systems will play an ever-increasing part.

By guest writer, Anthony Haddad, Sales Engineer, Intrado

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) is not new to public safety. It first came on the scene as an important tool with the introduction of wireless 9-1-1 service when location information could not be derived from a fixed service address. In today’s legacy architecture, geocoding or plotting X,Y coordinates is often used in conjunction with mapping applications to help dispatch responders to the correct location, but that has been the extent of its application.

Public safety agencies have been collecting GIS information for decades in order to populate the information found in selective routing database (SRDB), automatic location information (ALI) and master street address guides (MSAG). When an emergency call comes into a legacy GIS-equipped PSAP, associated addresses or X,Y coordinates are delivered as well, though the coordinates are meaningless on their own. In order to be valuable, this data must be plotted on a map in either the call-processing or computer-aided dispatch (CAD) environment. Once plotted, the information can be applied to perform dispatch functions. In this way, GIS is a supplemental tool used to verify location alone.

From June 3rd through 6th, Hexagon is hosting its HxGN LIVE 2013 — Hexagon International Conference, which will provide outstanding training, networking, visionary keynote addresses and much more.

Once again, nearly 4,000 Hexagon customers and partners will convene in Las Vegas. For Intergraph, many of these customers will be interested in learning more about the Intergraph Geospatial 2013 portfolio while also connecting with users and partners across various industry segments.

Attendees will learn how to best leverage their tools across various solution areas, with topics covering:

Actionable Intelligence for Multi-INT Fusion

Delivering Safer and More Efficient Rail Networks

Providing Understanding for Sustainable Natural Resource Management

Information Management Solutions for Roads

Mobility: Deploying Your Enterprise GIS in the Field

The Cloud Evolution and Revolution

Advanced Spatial Modeling & Scripting

Managing & Editing Point Clouds, including LiDAR Data

In addition, to give you a sense of how in-depth the hands-on trainings will be, here’s a brief descriptor of one of the sessions: